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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Why not add a little food to our palate as we take a journey to Brady, Texas. This was Culinariasa Food and Wine Festival at Becker Vineyards. The first course was this delicious compressed watermeleon with seafoam, crab and H2O bubble! What a delight to eat!!

Soup course was tomato bisque infused with lavendar, served with rosemary sprig.

The entree was short rib served over a bed of lentils, cucumbers, peaches--yummy!

And last but not least was this interesting take on bread pudding--cornbread pudding seated on blackberry peach sauce and topped with whiskey ice cream! All these courses were served with a variety of wines--total of 9!

As we checked into our Brady, Texas hotel for the evening we spotted this poster on the main event wall. In celebration of Armed Forces Day--a real fly-in! It was a must for the following morning before we continue on our road trip.

Curtis Field in Brady was opened in August 1941 to accommodate a civilian contract pilot school as CAAF or Civilian Auxiliary Field. Pilots or cadets were given Primary Flight Training in PT-19's and later Basic Air Training in BT-13's for the USAAF Gulf Coast Training Center. In all, over 10,000 cadets were trained at Curtis Field during World War II. On the field as we arrived was The Fairchild PT-19.

In 1940, the Fairchild PT-19 went into production as the US Army Air Corps' primary trainer for its cadet pilot trainees.

Inside the cockpit--some instruments and the center stick. This particular PT-19 was completely restored in California in 1989. A piece of history that continues to live on.

"Little Noodle"

This massive piece of equipment arrived as we were viewing the PT-19. This is a Big Gun Army Helicopter! It was an interesting morning for us. We met WWII pilot and spoke with Andrew, who was retired SouthWest pilot. Andrew knew all about the flying equipment on site and then some. We were fortunate to hear some of his flying stories and be proud of our military people who serve their country for our freedom.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

And a look at other handspun fibers being knit into a whirlwind of colors.

Wingspan pattern designed by maylin Tri'Coterie Designs, which you can find on Ravelry.

A little handspun wool, little handspun silk with other bits of handspun fibers helping making one of the wings. This is a fairly easy pattern to knit using short rows. Hoping it will make a circle--the theme for our January Spin-in.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

ATC or Artist Trading Cards came about during 1990's,with orgins in Switzerland, as a form to deliver small pieces of art. These cards, sized at 2.5" x 3.5", are traded, not sold. Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or cloth. These works of art are a way to exchange your ideas, thoughts, creativity, and a means of expressing oneself, but on a small scale. If the idea doesn't work on ATC, then there is no need to produce on a larger scale. It is also a recycling project as you can repurpose old playing cards, cereal boxes, various other cardboards that have been treated to accept the media to be used.

Some artists work in singles, some in series. The back can contain artists info, date, signature and info on media used. Take a look at these at Artist Trading Cards. At the ATC Quarterly website you can check out one of an e-zine to get some ideas from various artists.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Ever make a big mistake? A major mistake? What's the saying--"measure twice, cut once"? How about--"read all the instructions carefully!"? before continuing on your quilt.

We have been working on this quilt since last summer--it took lots of half square triangles. All that sewing on paper to get just the perfect square.

By joining Esther Aliu's website, you can receive these wonderful free patterns.

Lots of stitching took place over the summer of 2011. Going good here we thought.

Just great handwork--looks perfect and ready to sew into part three of the steps. All stitched--hurrah!!

It took four of these corners to finish up step 3.

Here is where both of those sayings at the top of blog come in--! Thinking all was well and it was time to move onto the next step, out came the rotary and ruler--cut away all that excess-- Well, horrors of horrors! These pieces would not fit into the pattern!! Woe is me! Looking at the pattern--again, one could plainly see that there is another 1/2" that needed to left on. What to do? What to do? Restitch all those time consuming patterns--AGAIN? Another summer of stitching and all that work gone to waste?NOT! This is the time when the brain becomes creative!! why not do this.................

applique all those patterns onto matching cloth and then cut away the back--well, why not? And we are off and running smoothly again.

At least, it isn't all wasted time--and the cutting lines have been MARKED!! Certainly won't make that mistake again! Read carefully before cutting is THE major rule now!!